It is well known that many card games, which are seemingly games of chance and in which success is seemingly dependent upon the power of cards dealt to a player, are actually games of skill. One of the primary skills of winning players in any card game is accurately assessing, or reading, opponents and extracting favorable outcomes from any given card holding or game situation by acting accordingly. In some games, this is done in conjunction with betting.
One such game is poker, a game which utilizes a deck of cards of which some are distributed to each player, with a goal of each player to identify any weaknesses in his or her opponent's card holdings or game play and extract maximum value, typically in the form of money or tokens such as chips, from opponents by exploiting those weaknesses. To do so, players may elect to bet, raise, call, fold, or check, and if entitled to, may adjust bet or raise sizes accordingly. Identifying the particular action that leads to an outcome of maximum value requires many poker skills, one of which requires players to make educated guesses as to the card holdings of his or her opponents. Because a player cannot see some or all of the cards held by his or her opponents, that player must, as all players must, draw inferential conclusions as to the power or standing of his or her opponents' card holdings, or range of card holdings, based on any information from the current deal or other information known about the opponent.
Further, an important aspect of poker is that of acting as though a player has a more powerful, or less powerful, holding than is actually the case. This is called bluffing. One of the requisite skills for poker players then is to be able to bluff when adventurous, or mathematically advantageous, and also to discern when other players may be bluffing. This exponentially increases the difficulty of discerning an opponent's card holdings, as an opponent may have a very strong holding yet act weak, or alternatively, an opponent may be holding weak cards yet act strong.
Developing an advanced ability to read poker players and poker situations, bet appropriately, bluff, and detect bluffing on the part of opponents at the table may be achieved by actual experience gained while playing poker. However, this may take a considerable amount of time, and may further entail risking money because of betting.
It is desirable then to find a way of accelerating the process of learning poker strategy and other aspects of poker playing, such as reading poker players and game situations, other than by actual play over a potentially long period of time and potentially at great financial expense. A game or training exercise which would enable players to learn poker strategy from actual games, about actual players, of real game situations encountered in live play without the risk of financial losses is highly desirable. In addressing such needs, this invention discloses a method of producing such training game exercises for a known card game such as poker.